Harmonic Decay
by XX-Samantha-XX
Summary: Something is going on with Tony but he wont tell the team because even he can't remember, then they catch a case that seems to have connections to him, but why ?...rated T to be safe...
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Don't own the characters at all (sad face)_

_Spoilers: None that I can think of, except the passing references to when Tony has been in hospital before. _

_Summary: Tony goes on holiday for two weeks, keeps everyone up to date so they don't worry while he's away, returns to work as normal, but doesn't remember what he did. Not wanting the team to worry he tries to hide it from them, but was that the right course of action to take when it could endanger him and possibly the team. _

_Okay well this story is strange so bare with it and I know I shouldn't have started it but seen as 'Best forgotten is drawing to a close I wanted something new, and it has been sitting on the computer for a long time as have some other new ideas. Me and a friend got the basic idea down while nattering and it just expanded from there so enjoy. _

**Harmonic Decay**

_Every system and mechanism decays eventually, it is just a matter of time and luck, or not as the case may be, on where and when your decline will occur. _

**Prologue **

The soft concordant notes rose up from the gramophone and spun slowly around him, the bows gliding across the tightly wound nylon strings of the violins, piercing his soul.

_Lacrimosa dies __illa__..._

The mournful quality of the words stirred up distant emotions and thoughts, and they spun together in rhythm, intermingling, like a double helix.

The harmony of the four parts creating a pitch perfect rendition of a classic; the deep Basses right through to the higher Sopranos, setting the range of the piece. Though, of course not forgetting the two middle sections; Tenors and Altos, creating a more wholesome and full depth feeling of the song. Notes perfectly in time with each other, some being held for longer than others, creating the eerie melody.

And so it continued.

The needle skimmed through the channels in the vinyl record, for it was only this that was truly able to speed up or slow down the tracks without it sounding unnatural to the ear. Though if it was too fast or too slow then the harmony would be ruined, it would decay into the air like a wisp of a breath in the night sky.

…_Qua __resurget__ ex __favilla__…_

Even the quieter notes echoed and twirled around the smooth white walls of the room in which, held a person. The light crescendo towards the end of that line and throughout the next increased as is lead up to a peak in the decibel levels, signifying an important part of the music, the climax if you will. Well, the first of the two for this particular piece.

…_Judicandus__ homo __reus__…_

It all resounded in the blank spaces of his mind; thoughts and feelings rampant, yet disconnected, without meaning and out of context. Pain. Fear. Loss. Perfectly mirroring the atmosphere of the full orchestra playing the music.

…_Lacrimosa dies __illa__…_

The corresponding images lost in the haze of his new world; into the darkness they had gone, not to be found unless a light strong enough to not fear the dark were to shine.

The tone of the second part seemed, if possible, more melancholic than the last. The pain turned to agony, the fear to horror, and the loss to grief. All empowering and inescapable.

But then the speed changed and he could do nothing to stop it. For he was bound with soft leather restraints; both on his wrists and ankles, and dressed in some kind of hospital clothes. But the reason for being there and listening to the music was also lost in the emotion filled, but image-less, abyss.

As the cadence was broken, the rhythm declining, the harmony in decay and disarray. The higher notes of the Soprano's more like screams in the man's disillusioned mind, the basses disappearing in the pitch and the melody lost to the slowing speed.

The man with the glazed green eyes tried to move, to escape the torture of the screams. The bows of the violins lay broken in his mind, the orchestra missing, just a faulty copy of a misaligned madness of sounds. Just noise; discordant and distorted into something now unrecognisable.

Notes lengthening and dragging across almost whole bars rather than the half a bar it would usually take. A perpetual resonance; causing the man to shudder at each screech and boom. The room seemed to focus in his mind a little and fists of slowly dripping blood appeared on the furthest wall, and he had no idea how they'd gotten there.

And then silence filled the empty room.

Nothing.

Just like his mind.

Blank.

A new canvas to draw upon.

Like the soft padded walls, floor and ceiling of the darkening room.

That was when he saw the shadows looming across the walls, whether walking past the barred window of the heavy door holding the man in the room in, or whether they were encroaching in the man's own hellish nightmare, where he had no control. No choice or free will. Simply nothing. Not anymore.

The setting sun created a criss-cross pattern across the wall opposite the small grated and grey window, making the now somewhat moving fractal blood patterns on the once pure white wall gleam with a new life.

The life that had been changed.

TBC

_I know its short but more soon, please review as always. _


	2. Chapter 2

_If anyone was wondering the song being used for the last chapter it was Lacrimosa from Mozart's requiem….also a few people alerted me to the similarity in my summary for this story and another one on the site, as far as I'm aware though that story goes in a different direction to the one I'm planning with this so enjoy…also this is set early on as my mind wants Kate to be there for this one. _

**Chapter 1 **

Blinking, he tried to clear the fog from his mind, getting from his apartment to his car seemed to have vanished from memory; like a puzzle piece had been removed at random. Turning on the car radio in effort to calm his nerves, it only proved to drive fear deep within his bones, immediately switching it off he focused on the road before him.

Yet the silence seemed to unsettle him, creating a wall of uncertainty around his mind.

Maybe he was just having an off day he wondered briefly, just nervous about going back into work after some time away….wait, he'd gone away? Where, and for how long?

Questions pulled at his mind, leaving him with an aching head as he turned the last corner to the building where he worked. Maybe he'd just drunk too much and was suffering the after effects.

Maybe not being there was the issue, call it what you will but he didn't like missing things. It had to be that, _right?_

Pulling into his usual driving spot, Tony DiNozzo was happy to be back in work. Exiting his car he grabbed his bag and donned his usual chipper mask and made his way towards the bullpen.

As he made his way up in the elevator it seemed to go insufferably slow, the numbers sliding past with the speed of a slug. Jumping a little at the ding as it indicated it was his turn to depart the cold metal box, he noticed that his chest, which had become tight, had relaxed a little upon leaving its confines.

_You're losing it DiNozzo. _

Shaking his head at the strange feeling, placing a firm mask on his face and making up a story if they should ask, he strode with purpose towards the part of the bullpen which held his team.

His mask almost slipped when the sounds greeting him seemed far too loud for his ears, but he shuck it off and grinned mischievously while he walked over to his desk and took his seat.

"Have a good vacation, Tony?" His partner's voice spoke out from across both desks.

"Ahhh, Katie, wouldn't you like to know." He winked for effect, after getting the intended look of repulsion he calmed into his usual bantering mood, putting to the side the strange thoughts of the morning.

The voice in his head telling him he would like to know as well.

Why he felt the need to hide it though was beyond him if he was honest, it just seemed like the thing to do, he didn't want to burden them with his problems as he was the one to help everyone else out when they needed help.

Immediately on edge again as the elevator dinged in the background, Tony tried to relax his body at the approaching heavy footsteps.

"Tony! You're back." Abby squealed in excitement, launching herself at him and hugging him tightly. "You must tell me everything that happened, in detail."

Pulling away a little, as he usually would, he plastered that oh so bright smile on his face and launched into his latest drinking binges with his old buddies and how they had been on the search for women, as per usual.

Kate, buying it easily, returned to focusing on her work. Abby frowned at first at his hesitant response, but seemed to calm when he went into copious amounts of detail of his antics.

After a painful ten minutes of lying to one of his best friends, Tony was saved by Gibbs sweeping past and gently nudging Abby back towards her lab and asking her to stop disturbing the team while they were working.

Feeling partly relieved and partly guilty, Tony returned to his paper work and ignored the confused look upon Gibbs' face as he past his desk towards his own. The knot in Tony's stomach growing ever heavier as he'd weaved him self that elaborate lie and was now avoiding his Boss' questioning gaze.

Knowing he had to find some way to distract Gibbs, he launched a paper ball towards Kate when he thought Gibbs wasn't looking.

"DiNozzo, get back to work." Gibbs sounded and looked more annoyed now than concerned. An annoyed Gibbs he could contend with. I mean there was no point worrying them with something that he didn't remember anyway, _right? _

As long as everything remained normal he would be fine_. _

Trying to concentrate on the boring paper work that he'd been putting off since before he had taken his vacation; he became very aware that everything around him seemed to be watching him...studying...even random office objects.

_Really losing it... _

While he continued to type he realised his hands were trembling slightly, scrunching his hands in to fists in order to stop the tremors he realised that it wasn't just his hands, he felt shaky, unnerved. Not remembering eating this morning he put it all down to hunger and not being in work for a while.

Shaking his head a little he returned back to staring at his computer screen and before he knew it a couple of hours had passed and it was lunch time.

Where the time had gone he had no idea. It was like he'd just existed for the past couple of hours and not done anything. Like he'd merely just stared aimlessly at the random bits of information flashing past his confused eyes.

"Ready to go to lunch, Tony?" Kate asked watchfully.

Tony's eyebrows rose in surprise and smiled that oh so gleaming smile of his; washing away all the worry that Kate's face had held.

"You asking me out on a date, Katie?" Tony asked mischievously as he moved around his desk.

"Tony!" Kate complained while elbowing Tony in the ribs when he got close enough.

Tony smile brightened at the normalcy of it, though his ribs smarted a little more than usual at the action.

While walking out of the building they decided upon a local diner and chatted good naturedly about anything.

Tony tried to ignore the unease that was creeping up his spine as they stepped across the road, a light rain had covered the ground in moisture and a few puddles had gathered near the kerbs. Tony, also happened to step in one of the larger ones and a splash of water leaked inside his shoe.

"Eww." Tony wined as he usually would while Kate smirked at his misfortune.

Tony looked down to check the damage to his pant leg and almost flinched at what he saw.

It wasn't water that clung to his leg. It was more sinister than that.

It was blood. Who's, he didn't know.

It was clotted and dry, as if it had been there for hours.

He blinked and it was gone in a flash of white light and a sharp but short lived pain in his head.

Kate, having not noticed anything but the water, simply dragged her partner along and told him it would dry soon enough, still smirking.

Tony shook his head and told himself that it was down to his over active imagination because they were stuck doing paperwork all day.

Though considering everything else that had happened throughout the morning he was starting to doubt his own sanity.

Selecting his food when at the diner seemed an unusually impossible task, he wasn't sure he was hungry anymore but had to keep up the illusion that everything was fine so decided on a big greasy burger with fries. Kate looked disgustingly at it while she stuck with some type of salad and he knew he's chosen the right thing to choose.

The only thing was though; even looking at the food when it arrived made him feel nauseous.

"Still recovering, Tony?" Kate mocked, not seeing the hesitation in his eyes.

Tony merely grinned and started delving into his food so she didn't get too suspicious.

The knot having grown heavier as the morning turned to the early afternoon.

Either something was going on and a prank of large proportions was being played on him, or he really was losing it. Either way, he couldn't let them know anything was wrong, that was the only thing he knew for sure.

And, personally he was hoping for the first.

_TBC_

_So what is really going on that Tony won't ask for help? Hope you enjoyed this one, please review! _


	3. Chapter 3

_I know that it's been awhile but here is the new chapter, enjoy and please read one called 'A Different Normal' by Callisto-HK, its quite good and i'm enjoying being a beta for it. _

**Chapter 2**

After coming back from lunch and feeling a little nauseous Tony had been happy when a call had come in; a body had been found. They now had the distraction he'd been looking for all day.

At the moment they were currently on their way to the scene with Gibbs driving unusually slower than normal. After looking at her partner and noting the abnormal silence, she knew why.

Tony was asleep.

After looking more closely, and having seen the way Tony had been acting all morning, something bothered her about the normally hyperactive agent; there was something, as Abby would put it, hinky. Leaving it for now and putting it down to him still recovering from his vacation; Kate starting typing out some questions to ask the person who had come across the body on her PDA.

She heard the gasp and felt the flinch in her partner before she saw it out of the corner of her eye. Tony's eyes opened and for a second she thought she saw complete terror in them, but then he blinked and it was gone. However, it momentarily changed to confusion and he looked around as if trying to remember where he was, then it was gone again.

"Bad dream, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked before Kate could say anything.

"Sure boss." The response was groggy but Tony smiled all the same.

Tony was relieved when nothing more was said about it throughout the rest of the journey, but was no longer convinced that what was happening was a joke anymore.

All he could remember from the dream he'd had was a number. It seemed random in nature as it didn't particularly mean anything to him. As if it was just plucked out of thin air.

Sixty seven.

It spun around his mind, but it seemed to refuse to tumble into any other random thought pattern he would usually have when trying to connect things.

It either wasn't noticed, or just not commented on but Gibbs shot Tony a concerned look. He'd been working with former detective for just over two years now and liked to think that he could read all the looks that crossed the green eyes. But the look he saw wasn't one he could really place, confusion was there somewhere but there was a bleakness that he reckoned the younger man didn't even understand.

Something was wrong. But even if he were to ask he knew Tony wouldn't have given a straight answer, and that wasn't just purely down to the fact that that is what Tony did.

They arrived on the scene and Gibbs ordered them to their jobs; he'd decided that he'd secretly keep his eye on Tony to make sure that whatever it was bugging his Agent wouldn't get him hurt.

They found a body in a plain looking metal room, a frame shoved up against the back wall with a grotty looking thin mattress lying on the bent metal of the bed frame. An artificial light flickered on and off above them rapidly. The mid-day light trickled through the barred windows so Gibbs momentarily turned off the annoying light, they had enough light to work with. The room seemed a mixture of hospital and prison, that and the body spread out on its back, eyes facing upwards locked in a look of terror, meant that this case was going to be a strange one. Though Gibbs also had the feeling that there was more to what they were seeing here.

Looking to see whether his two Agents were getting on with their work he found a slightly pale looking Tony stare at the body on the ground before them.

The feeling increased tenfold.

"Hey, DiNozzo, do you know him or something?" He knew he sounded harsh but they had a job to do, he could try to help his Agent later if he needed it.

"No, Boss." Though the tone was unsure.

"Then get back to work." Tony did as he was told and moved on to taking pictures of the surrounding area.

x-X-x

As soon as Tony had stepped into the room where the body was his mind threw another image at him when he wasn't expecting it.

_Looking through a small box window, Tony couldn't keep his eyes from the shadows in the room behind the glass._

_Bright, sharp lights started to make his eyes water at their intensity. _

_The dark shadows moved erratically then stopped, then moved again. _

_Then a scream was ripped out of the shadow on the floor. _

Just as the scream ended Tony had heard Gibbs' question and responded automatically.

The metal room seemed to be one of many in the building that they had been driven to. A couple of kids had come across the room while playing around in the abandoned building. All of the rooms were pretty similar in nature, except for one. This one was bigger and contained a table, with what looked like monitoring screens that were connected to cameras in the separate rooms, and a large filing cabinet, all noticeably new but a light layer of dust on them. This place, whatever it had been, had only been abandoned recently.

Still feeling a little nauseous, Tony looked in the filing cabinet. Ducky was in the other room determining the cause of death, Tony could see him on one of the cameras.

Pulling open the first out of three drawers, Tony found it full of beige files, arranged in two rows, almost like hospital notes. Bile rose up his throat when he opened up the first file. There were pictures of one person in different states of emotion, mainly fear and terror. Looking at some of the notes he quickly became aware of one very common word.

Experiment.

Or variations of it.

Now, he'd seen a lot of things, but when he saw the amount of files there and the very clinical way they had been labelled he almost lost his lunch right there and then.

All the people were referred to by were subject numbers.

Suddenly music screamed out all around him, he froze, dropping the files he had held in his hands moments ago.

_Dies irae, dies illa... _

The instruments were too loud, the voices more like horrific screams.

_Solvet saeclum in favilla... _

Then everything was silent apart from the too loud voice calling his name.

"Tony?" The voice sounded concerned.

x-X-x

Before the music had made them all jump, Gibbs had become increasingly worried about his senior Agent. The way the younger man had stared at the body and then all but ran out of the room under the guise of finding evidence in other rooms.

It had taken a good thirty minutes to find Tony and by then the music that had come on momentarily had stopped at least twenty minutes previously.

He didn't know what he expected to find when looking into the room where his Agent was, but what he had found unnerved him more than when they had found the other body.

It wasn't that every room they had been in seemed to be monitored, it wasn't that there seemed to be cabinets full of files, or even the pictures that had escaped from the files that had fallen to the ground, seemingly unaware to his agent.

It was that Tony himself seemed to be lost. Eyes staring blankly at something unseen, posture as tense and tight as a brand new coil.

"Tony?" Gibbs called calmly, not wanting to startle his Agent.

But Tony remained silent, unblinking, and unmoving. Frozen.

Even when he placed a hand on Tony's shoulder the younger man did not move.

"Tony?" Gibbs' tone was more concerned than calm now and he wondered what the hell was happening.

Just when Gibbs was about to call Ducky, Tony blinked and moved his hands to each side of his face, grabbing it as if in pain. Then Tony was on his knees grasping for something unknown, and Gibbs felt like he was witness to something he shouldn't know about his Agent, his friend.

His Agent's eyes though, were what worried him. Nothing of the man he knew existed there, not in this split second.

Tony then jerked and looked around, confused. Gibbs realised this and knelt beside his Agent.

"Tony? What just happened?" He tried to put as much assurance that he wasn't going to hurt him into his voice as possible as Tony seemed a little skittish but Tony still flinched at his touch.

Looking at his Boss, Tony's mind was a mess, he knew something had happened and he remembered searching for something but not why or even why he was on the floor surrounded with scattered files.

"I...Don't know." Gibbs knew that Tony was trying to regain control of himself again so let the waver in his voice go.

Looking at the confusion on the younger man's face he knew that Tony didn't know what had happened anymore than he did.

Tony stood up too quickly, pain and dizziness almost sent him to the ground again and would have if Gibbs hadn't caught him by the shoulders.

Tony turned away from Gibbs and heaved up the lunch that hadn't settled. Aches and pains made themselves aware of where they were on his body.

Gibbs helped Tony to his feet after he had finished being sick and handed him some water, noting also, that Tony seemed to be a little warmer than normal. "Just take sips, we're going to see Ducky."

Tony tensed under Gibbs' hand; he frowned and hoped that it was just that Tony didn't want to be touched right now.

But he had the horrible feeling that something more was going on with his Agent and that it was connected to the case they had just been put on.

Gibbs didn't know how right he was, he also didn't know that what they were about to find out would change his opinion on the limits of cruelty someone could inflict upon another living person.

TBC

_What is going on with Tony, what does it have to do with their case and what really happened on Tony's vacation?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

Ducky looked up at the sound of his name being called, as he looked up however, he became concerned. Jethro seemed to be supporting a pale looking Tony as they walked over towards him.

"Is there something wrong, Jethro?"

Tony had just been about to answer that question himself with a wink and a smile but Gibbs beat him to it. Though Gibbs wasn't quite sure how to explain it to the doctor so he just gave Ducky the basics.

"He's just been sick and seems to have a temperature."

Tony grumbled under his breath and as the older man came closer to him to check on him he suddenly felt crowed and backed away from the man's touch. Both Gibbs and Ducky frowned at the action, they knew that Tony didn't much like Doctors but he usually trusted Ducky at least.

"Now, Anthony, you will have to stay still for me to look at you." Tony frowned as well, as if he wasn't even sure why he'd moved away in the first place. They could see that he was trying to will himself to stay still when Ducky approached again.

The quick check up only took a few minutes but seemed a lot longer to Tony. During the examination there seemed to be a darkness grasping out for him in his peripheral vision but he couldn't quite see what it was, he could feel himself drifting again towards the end of the check-up but managed to ground himself to the room that they were currently in by the time it was over. And he hoped that Gibbs and Ducky hadn't noticed.

"Anthony, are you okay?" The friendly Doctor asked.

Damn no such luck going off the looks he was currently being given, Tony wondered what to do next and was just about to say something as Kate walked towards them.

She frowned as she saw them standing close together but Tony looked...Nervous?

"There something wrong?" Kate questioned.

Tony immediately filled the silence before its existence with his mega-watt smile and a dramatic shake of his head as he spoke. "Nope, what in the world would give you that idea apart from the obvious crime scene in the other room?" But even Kate could tell that the smile was far too bright, even for him.

And the murderous glare Gibbs sent Tony only reinforced the feeling that something was really wrong.

Tony was just about to congratulate himself for his miraculous save when Gibbs dragged him off to one side and ordered him to see Ducky for a full check up as soon as they got back. They both also tried to ignore the way Tony had tensed up when Gibbs had grabbed his arm.

Tony stared after Gibbs as the man walked away to ask Kate about the statements she had gotten from the kids that had found the body. Tony also, tried to place the emotion he was feeling as he watched Gibbs walk away from him and why it was even there.

The only thing he knew for certain was that he was sick of this practical joke now.

But that god forsaken number running wild in his mind had only grown in intensity the longer he remained in this building and he wasn't at all sure that all of this was a joke anymore.

Looking around the room he could see that Ducky was still there and contemplating something, he also saw that Ducky was heading for him. Crap.

"Must go Duckman, you know how Gibbs gets when we don't work!" Tony exclaimed and briskly left the room.

The elderly ME watched the younger man go and hoped that whatever was going on here wasn't going to be anything like what his own gut was telling him.

x-X-x

By the time they all made it back to headquarters is was well into the evening. All the rooms had been searched, all possible evidence collected and sent to Abby, statements taken and the body moved the autopsy. Now it was a waiting game and it was waiting that they all hated the most.

They didn't exactly have anything to go on yet as the kids hadn't seen anything apart from the body and all the cameras seemed to have been used inside the building rather than outside and there was hours of footage to go through.

Looking at his two tired Agents, Gibbs spoke up. "Go home Kate, DiNozzo, with me." The order was simple.

Kate sent Tony a sympathetic look as she grabbed her bag and left the bull-pen.

Tony had remained seated and pretended to be working on a report, Gibbs observed him for a moment as if expecting him to crack now that it was just the two of them. When nothing happened, Gibbs stalked over to Tony's desk and hovered above him and saw the man tense even though he had tried to hide it.

That did it! "DiNozzo, Now!" Gibbs was angry, angry that something was going on and he didn't know about it and that whatever it was had his best Agent hugely off kilter.

As they both got into the elevator, Gibbs swore that fear was radiating off his unusually silent Agent.

Tony knew that he'd been doing a bad job of pretending to be fine all day, even Kate was suspecting something now and it had been his own fault. Suddenly being in an enclosed space didn't seem like a good idea to him, Gibbs could watch him too closely, he'd see right through his poor attempt of being fine.

Just as the doors opened to Autopsy, Gibbs knew that Tony was about ready to bolt like a scared animal and while he knew Tony didn't particularly like doctors, this was a first, even for him.

x-X-x

Ducky frowned at the way the younger man seemed on edge as Jethro led him to an autopsy table away from the body they had found earlier in the day.

Not a word was spoken in the cold silver room and Tony swore that he could see his breath as he breathed. He could feel eyes staring at him but he was purposely ignoring them, there was too many of them looking at him and it was unsettling. He wanted them to stop but he knew he couldn't show it. Tony started picking at his fingernails while ignoring the humming that was building up at the back of his mind. Maybe, if he just sat there the humming would stop and the eyes would stop looking.

Gibbs and Ducky stood watching the younger agent, becoming more concerned as they watched, they knew that something was on the younger man's mind that he was trying to hide and they didn't like it one bit. They could also see that his posture was as tense as a new spring.

"DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked calmly.

"Yes, boss?" He answered just as calmly back as if none of the day had happened. Eyes alert and showing the readiness that Tony usually had. The only thing wrong with it was that Gibbs knew it was a show.

"Tony, you need to take your shirt off so Ducky can have a look at you." Tony complied silently without any protest; Gibbs frowned deeply, that had been _far_ too easy.

Before Gibbs could get a look at his Agent his phone chose that moment to ring, turning away he answered it.

Ducky stepped forward towards Tony's back in shock.

There was some bruising but it was at least a few days old. And some odd markings that looked almost surgical.

He'd seen the same markings only once, on the body that was also occupying the room.

"How did these happen, my dear boy?" Ducky inquired lightly.

Tony looked at Ducky for a long moment before he answered, unsure and looking scared.

"Must have fallen while I was out drinking with my frat brothers on vacation." Tony smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

Ducky didn't believe him and by the looks of it, the younger man didn't even believe himself.

They both jumped and turned to the door as a slightly pale Gibbs stormed his way back into autopsy.

Gibbs grabbed Tony by the shoulders, ignoring the flinch and stared at his expression as if looking for the lie in it.

"What happened?"

TBC

Oh dear, Whats going on with Tony and who rung Gibbs? What did they say to him to make him react like that. Please read and enjoy!


	5. Chapter 5

_I know i haven't been replying to reviews recently but i really do love knowing that people are still reading so i am saying thank you now for the reviews so far. As for the lateness of this chapter and others i'm back on the lovely shift work at the hospital, though this time in the intensive care and high dependency units...they are teaching me a lot !_

**Chapter 4 **

"Gibbs." Gibbs answered his phone.

"Gibbs, you need to get up here, now." The voice sounded confused and worried.

"What is it Abbs, what happened?"

"Just get up here, please." That was when he realised that Abby was trying to keep herself together.

He shut off his cell and entered the elevator, unsure whether he wanted to be out of a line of sight with the Tony. His gut was telling him that Abby's phone call had something to do with Tony but it was impossible, Abby had been going the footage from their crime scene.

It _was_ impossible, _right?_

Entering the lab a moment later, Gibbs noticed straight away that something was horribly wrong.

Abby was staring at her computer, an unreadable look upon her face, at a blank screen.

"Abby?" As soon as she looked in his direction he knew that she'd already been crying.

"Just watch, I can't look at it." She pressed a button on the keyboard and turned away from the screen.

After a few moments Gibbs' face lost all colour and he stopped the video himself. Turning towards Abby he, for once, didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better.

x-X-x

"What happened?" Gibbs demanded again as Tony's expression remained clueless.

"I don't know what you mean, Boss." But Tony was feeling cornered and that damn darkness was creeping around the room again. The thoughts of him completely losing it also crossed his mind as a faint sound of music could be heard, he hoped it was just Abby's from the floor above but knew that it was the wrong sort for her.

He moved to get up, he needed some space. Turning sharply, he thought he saw something move, Tony didn't hear the gasp from the Doctor or see the strange look upon Gibbs' face. That was until strong hands held him firmly still.

Strangely the hands seemed to ground him rather than make him tense for a change. He looked up at the man in front of him, who still had a strange look upon his face, and answered the question he'd been asked as truthfully as he could.

"I don't know." Tony answered hopelessly and for a moment he thought Gibbs was going to explode in to an angry fit for thinking that he was lying, but they simply stood there for a moment as his boss gauged how much truth was in those words.

That was until Ducky drew their attention to him. "Jethro." The tone worried Gibbs more than he already was, he knew it was a warning that he was going to see or hear something that he wouldn't like. The tone that he usually used when cases involved children.

Looking in the direction Ducky was drawing him to he tried to keep his face as straight as he could, but it was harder than usual considering the video Abby had shown him.

If Tony hadn't have tried to move they never would have caught a glimpse of it. "Do you know how this happened, Tony?"

The younger man looked more confused than anything else at the moment but looked at what Gibbs was pointing to and immediately paled, harsh violins screeched in his ears as if only a few feet away.

There was no way of this being a joke any longer, the raw red flesh shaped oddly like a number marred the skin of his right side, just above his hip. But the number seemed familiar and it would have made him feel nauseous if he thought too much about it, so he did was he usually did and ignored it.

"Tony? Do you remember anything at all?"

Tony frowned, trying to remember any of the dreams or images he'd been seeing, but nothing came to mind. He shivered as he was still shirtless, he felt a little exposed and turned back towards one of the tables to grab his shirt only to find it missing...

_One solitary metal table stood in the room, turning quickly around he looked for Gibbs and Ducky but found them missing as well._

_But then his axis changed and he was staring at the tiles above him. He was on top of the metal table now and unable to move. His eyes searched for an escape that eluded him the more he tried to look for it. _

_He could hear something in the background but it wasn't understandable and it was lost to his own harsh breathing, trying to calm his frayed nerves. Exhaustion pulled at his mind, telling him that he'd not slept in a long, long time._

_Somewhere he heard a door open but he ignored it in favour of staying as still as possible, maybe in the dim lighting, if he was perfectly still then he wouldn't be seen. He knew that was idiotic but it helped, if only a little._

_Tony's eyes followed the sound that had entered the room, he could tell it was a person but didn't have the strength or fight it when it launched at him and the world dissolved in a flash of burning pain and white that melted into darkness. _

When Gibbs had asked the question, he hadn't expected much of an answer at all, but he also hadn't expected his Agent to cease all movement, it had happened earlier in the day and he had the feeling that Tony wouldn't remember anything when it was over. It made him question what the hell had gone on in that building. They had videos and one in particular that he'd seen but even that didn't explain how Tony was acting now.

"Jethro?" Ducky questioned his friend as the look on his face was like he'd seen this before.

"I don't know what it is Duck, but it happened earlier today back in that building and he couldn't remember a damn thing afterwards."

Gibbs pointedly ignored the glare that told him he should have told Ducky that as well.

They both watched the younger man, he eyes hollow and the expression frozen on his face one of fear. Neither man knew what to do other than to wait it out and hope that is wasn't causing the younger man any damage.

The next few minutes happened so fast they barely had time to react, one moment the younger man was standing, seemingly leaning against the autopsy table and the next Tony dropped in to a sitting position, his back against the table, knees pulled into his chest and looking outwards towards them both confusedly as if they had the answers he needed.

Tony's mind was fuzzy but some of the images were still floating around in his mind, there was no questioning now that something other than what he had been telling his friends had happened in the two weeks he'd been gone and looking up his misread the look on Gibbs' face for anger that he had lied to them all and tried to come up with words to explain himself.

As soon as he went to form a sentence, Gibbs gave him a silent look, telling him that they'd figure this out. But he felt the need to give Gibbs something, if only for the patience that he'd just shown by not asking him all the questions he knew his Boss would be thinking.

"I remember a room and a number." Tony tried to sound confident but that fell short when he frowned as more images invaded his mind, just snippets, nothing that made sense apart from one word.

"Experiment." For a moment Tony thought he'd just voiced the word in his head.

That was until he felt Gibbs presence right next to him, Gibbs had knelt down beside him.

"What was that, Tony?" Gibbs hadn't been sure what he'd heard at first so needed clarification and hoped that he hadn't heard what he thought he had.

"They were experimenting." But there was no tone in Tony's voice.

He wanted to ask who 'they' were but doubted that Tony knew the answer himself so he asked something he needed to ask but his gut was telling him he already knew the answer to.

"On who?"

"On all of us."

**TBC**

_Oh dear, what does Tony mean by all of us, and what happened on the video to scare Gibbs, does he really want to know what happened if Tony's mind had protected him from it all...Will have to wait until next time...thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Wow I didn't think it had been that long since I updated this one! How mean leaving you all like that, sorry about that but please enjoy this next chapter that luckily was partly saved from chapter doom when my laptop died!_

**Chapter 5 **

_"On all of us."_

The words hung in the silence of the silver room.

He didn't know himself what the words meant, the meaning was locked inside a dull grey box. The box seemed sturdy, made of strength like steel. The lock was unpickable, not that was even a word.

There was one problem though; the box had a fatal flaw.

The steel wasn't pure and it was leaking, sure it was slow but the images coming through trickled past like rain down a window. The darkness within it; breaking out, fracturing his mind into haphazard pieces that had no order. He had no notion of what was real and what was not, not while images were battling to be seen all at once.

And he was completely at its mercy.

It was a ticking time bomb, its structure weakening as if it had been designed like that. Designed to give him random little pieces each time something set of its ultimate explosion of images, of what really happened.

He needed to stop it from collapsing and exposing everything….._if its exposed they're dead_….The voice, while wasn't a new addition in all of this, he couldn't ignore.

And Tony had the feeling that it could end him and his team.

And he had to protect the team from whatever this was; even if he didn't know himself.

So he decided, at the detriment of his sanity and possibly his job; to protect at all costs.

That was the only thing important here.

But it had been like that there as well. Hadn't it? Was he forgetting something important?...

"Tony?"

He must have been quiet for too long he wondered because the familiar voice sounded worried.

So he blocked out what he could and tried to focus because that all he could do at the moment, until he could get away from here that is.

Gibbs didn't like the way that Tony seemed to have made a decision in the last few moments of them watching him.

He'd been quiet after spilling out words they hoped they would never have to hear again. The video he had seen tried to rush to the forefront of his mind but he couldn't bring himself to think about that, not until he knew what it meant for the man standing in front of him. He wouldn't mention it lest it destroy the younger man. Some things were just better forgotten about.

"Do you remember anything else, Tony?" He tried to stop his voice from quivering at the prospect of what Tony might remember; maybe it was kinder that he didn't have memory of it. Gibbs knew he wouldn't want to remember that.

"No, Boss." Well, it wasn't a lie; he had nothing concrete to give them, only snippets really; ones that made no sense whatsoever. Gibbs looked doubtful of his answer but he couldn't really do anything about that.

Before anyone in autopsy knew what was happening, Kate came in, in a rush of what looked as close to scared as they had ever seen from her.

"Gibbs, I think the victims were being experimented on, but it doesn't really state how."

But it had come at the wrong time and as soon as she had said it she wished that she had looked around the room and felt the tension in the atmosphere before she had spoken.

Two sets of concerned eyes turned towards the younger man in the room, Kate followed their eyes to see what they were looking at.

It was Tony.

His expression as blank as canvas, arms still by his sides, and his voice toneless, holding no emotion.

"I'll tell you how."

_Tony blinked sluggishly. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain in his arm and something warm rushing through his veins. _

_A hazy shadow seemed to move before him and around the room; which was strange considering he was blindfolded. _

_His eyelids became heavier and just as he was about to slip under a loud scream woke him. That had been the third?...forth? time that had happened when he had tried to rest. It was as if they were keeping him awake on purpose. _

_The funny thing about the shadows he seemed to be seeing, was that sometimes they were there; sometimes they were a figment of imagination, he was sure that his mind was playing tricks on him now as he couldn't see through the darkness of the scratchy material wrapped around his eyes _

_What worried him the most however was when they had taken the blindfold off, all he could still see was a bleak darkness and shadows; as if forcing him to believe he was blind._

_He hadn't slept in what seemed like days but he had no notion of time so he supposed that it didn't really matter, what mattered was trying to find a way out of here so he could see if there was a person behind the screams that were almost constant now. _

_And he realised with marginal clarity that he might have been able to call for one of the shadow to come back if it had been real. Though, the reason for wanting it to come back still eluded him…_

For a moment, everyone watching the younger man thought he was remembering what had happened but the blank look disappeared and he looked confused again. It was as if his mind remembered what had happened but its owner wasn't privy to the memories. It was they're turn to be confused now; they hadn't seen anything like this. Ever. Not even Ducky.

"So, what's going on, guys?" Tony asked trying to sound normal.

"Seriously!" Kate almost shouted; Gibbs sent her a death glare which also told her to leave the room so she followed suit. This was new information to him, it wasn't what he'd seen on the video. Just what else had these people done, Gibbs wondered.

With her gone and Tony still wondering, Ducky asked the question both he and Gibbs needed a straight answer to.

"Don't you remember what you just said?" They waited with baited breath for the answer.

"What did I say?" They tried to find the lie in the question but it failed.

He honestly had no idea.

x-NCIS-x

It had been decide that Tony would be stay with Gibbs for the foreseeable future and that Tony was going to be checked over by a neurologist in the morning, much to Tony's protest. Gibbs smiled, Tony never had liked hospitals, but he'd reluctantly agreed as long as he could go himself to his apartment to get his things.

But that had been an hour ago now.

Maybe, he should have gone with him. But then he hadn't wanted to push the younger man to breaking point for he had had so little control over anything recently.

It had been an hour and five minutes now since he'd told Tony to pack a bag and then come over to his house.

Thirty minutes longer than any other time he had ordered the same thing before.

His gut was twisting and turning like nothing else it had before.

Gibbs paced for a few more moments on his hard wood floor, almost indenting the wood with his apprehension. Had those who were responsible for all this come back for Tony? Had there been an accident on the way home?

He wasn't sure but he had the awful feeling that he wouldn't be seeing Tony anytime soon.

And it was confirmed when he arrived at Tony's apartment.

It was as if it hadn't been touched in weeks, a light layer of dust lay across the once shining surfaces.

Everything was as dull and lifeless as the last look he'd seen its owner wear only one hour and twenty minutes ago.

For one bleak moment Gibbs wondered if he would ever see the man who was like a son to him again.

He would see him again.

He had to.

_Right? _

TBC

_Okay this story is back, sorry about the ultra long wait for it, hopefully I should be getting new chapters out for others as well soon. Now that my Essay for Uni is done I have a bit of time spare to write when I'm not on placement or doing workbooks or writing my dissertation lool Gah All these things you need to do to become a Nurse lol!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Right well, i shouldn't be writing this because my dissertation is due on the 10th of may and i have a graded presentation at some point tomorrow but hey i got an idea for this chapter that just wouldn't go away. _

_Okay so this story is still going to be weird and look like there are gaps everywhere but that's half the fun of the mystery right? Anyway enjoy!_

**Chapter 6- This was all just so incredibly wrong.**

As soon as Gibbs set his eyes upon his house for the second time that evening, he knew immediately that there was something wrong, he could just feel it.

Everything was silent and quite as usual but each step towards his house seemed to unnerve him.

It had only been an hour since he'd last been here but it seemed so...

He couldn't even explain the feeling his gut was throwing at him. It overrode the anger and fear that had been seething since finding no sign of his missing agent, since having been back to the navy yard and put a bolo out for Tony and his car.

But that had been a week ago now and nothing had been found since.

And he had gone to Tony apartment every night since just to see the same thing he had seen a week ago. Absolutely nothing.

They has just simply seemed to have vanished off the face of the planet in the one hour and twenty minutes they had been separated...well it was more like one week, one hour and thirty minutes now looking at his watch.

That was when he noticed the difference between now and an hour ago. Every single light in his house was switched off and that had not been how he left it.

Someone had been here and that thought sank his stomach lower.

There was only about three maybe four meters between his car and the front door to his house, and if he cared to count about ten maybe twelve steps altogether. He'd only made two and his gut wanted him to stop already, as if it didn't want him to see what his own house held.

He powered through because he was Gibbs 'second b for bastard', ex marine and now senior supervisory NCIS field agent, and this was his house and he wasn't going to be scared away by anything.

But that didn't stop the feeling, which was eating its way through every fibre of his being, that was telling him there was something horribly wrong here.

And the feeling only got ten times worse the closer to the door he got. For a split second he thought that he'd stepped on something slippery, but that wasn't what had caught his attention.

His door was ever so slightly open, not so much that if someone walking or driving past that it looked open but enough that anyone who knew the occupant of this house would take note of and be worried that something was wrong.

And there was a smell that had just piqued his senses, one that he hadn't realised until now. But that was...

He slowly opened his door with one hand and lifted his gun with the other, the door knob was oddly warm with some kind of substance but he didn't think about it and wiped it on his pant leg quickly and moved further into his house.

He was just about to turn the lights on when his cell phone rang.

A little startled at the intrusion to the foreboding silence that had surrounded his house, but he answered without hesitation.

"Gibbs...ah." But the voice on the other side of the phone was barely recognisable as the Agent he knew it belonged to.

"Kate, what is it?"

The silence on the end of the phone spoke volumes as to what had been found. It was bad.

"They've found his car.." Kate's voice stuttered to a stop again and he thought that he heard a sniffle, as if she'd been upset.

But wait...that meant...

"What is it agent Todd, was he in the car?" He knew he was being a bastard but the horrid feeling in his gut was inescapable.

"No, he wasn't...but..." Again she stopped as if she didn't want to voice the her next words, though it gave him the opportunity to figure out why his house seemed so could and why the smell seemed so strong now he was inside.

And he realised with an odd new clarity, exactly what the smell was as soon as Kate said her next words.

"It's all over...everywhere...it's just...everywhere...enough so you wouldn't live...the blood."

And he realised it because, as soon as he'd switched on the light to the main room, and the phone and gun he'd been holding fell out of his now slack hands, because it was all over his house.

Blood

Handprints that showed the person they belonged was using the wall for support, footprints that had trailed the horrid substance through the house...he knew what it all looked like because he'd been doing the job for so long and there was that much of it surely the person that it belonged to couldn't still be living.

There was just no way.

Nausea rose up within him at the sight but he forced it back down.

And the horrible feeling in his gut made him turn around instantly at a shuffling sound in his front room.

The figure, whoever it was, was on his hands and knees, his hands frantic, as if searching for something on the floor.

The phone lay forgotten, with Kate questioning where he was through the speaker but Gibbs remembered the gun.

Gibbs levelled his gun at the figure whose face he couldn't see, though his gut was telling him that this person here wasn't someone to be worried of but to be worried for.

All the figure seemed to be do though was spread the still wet blood around the floor, he obviously couldn't find what he was looking for and it was heart-breaking for Gibbs to watch how this unknown figure was desperate.

But then it all clicked.

"Tony!"

The figure stilled in his actions but didn't stand up or turn around and was still hidden from view and it was killing Gibbs.

He moved as quickly as he dared so he wouldn't startle the younger man, and it turned out it was a snail's pace but his body wouldn't push him any faster. It took everything he had to try and figure out the situation before him and he still came up short on an explanation for all this.

Tony hadn't moved since Gibbs had shouted his name and it was so unnatural for the usually ever moving younger agent that it didn't sit right with Gibbs but then the whole situation hadn't sat right with him since Tony had gotten back from his vacation never mind what he'd learnt before Tony had gone missing.

Gibbs was now standing next to Tony and the only action Tony took was to tense up because Gibbs was too close.

And Tony was mumbling something.

Something that Gibbs couldn't make out and he hated it.

This was all just so incredibly wrong.

"Tony?" With the question Tony's voice became loud enough to hear but the hoarseness in it caused Gibbs to flinch, it sounded so raw, as if the man had been screaming at some point and for so long that he just couldn't bear to think about.

"Where are they?" And Tony started to search again through the blood on the ground that seemed to have grown in volume even if it was ever so slight. Tony was hurt and Gibbs needed to do something to help him but damn it if the look in the younger man's eyes made him try to answer his question first before thinking...because that's what he wasn't doing right now, thinking, and just playing by hear. If Tony was still conscious then the injury wouldn't be so bad.

But then this was Tony they were talking about.

And he'd been conscious before after a serious injury.

And this was just wrong, Gibbs' brain repeated more forcefully.

"Where are they?" Tony repeated his question, the tone distressed and scared.

"Where are who?" Gibbs tone wasn't much better than the younger man's, not after he saw the injuries when Tony had moved slightly to face him.

"I don't...I...Gibbs?" It was as if Tony had only just realised Gibbs was even there and he looked around and took in the scene and where he was and asked the most impossible question.

"Are you okay, Gibbs?"

Gibbs remained silent and the younger man's expressions changed to worry from whatever it had been so fast that it made Gibbs dizzy.

That was when he heard the sirens coming closer to his house and he remembered the unfinished conversation he'd been having with Kate about Tony's car and the blood that had been found there.

And all Gibbs could think was how unbelievably wrong this whole situation was.

**TBC**

_It wasn't that bad of a cliff hanger right? My muse wanted to end it when Gibbs saw all the blood in his house for the first time but i told her to be quiet and keep writing but i'm afraid Tony took the fall for that the poor thing. So what in the hell is going on here then? Don't worry things will start being explained soon i promise...should be able to write more in about three weeks as well once my final presentations and dissertation are done with. Thanks for reading everyone!_


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